KARACHI, Nov 25: A total of 94,493 applications have been received for the stock worth Rs28.013 billion in Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL).

The market had been widely speculating on the possible sum that the OGDCL’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) may have managed to attract. KSE Managing Director Moin M. Fudda cut through the thick layer of suspense when he announced on Tuesday that the figures of 94,493 applications for shares of the value of Rs28.013 billion had been reported by the lead managers to the issue. But the KSE MD went on to caution that those were still the ‘interim numbers’.

The sum of Rs28.013 billion suggested that the sum of money already received and accounted for stood at over four times the total IPO amount of Rs6.9 billion, including the green shoe option that the government had decided to exercise. The OGDCL offer, which remained open for the public subscription for five days — from November 10 to 14 — was the biggest stock offering in the history of the Karachi Stock Exchange.

Including the ‘green shoe’ option, the total 5pc disinvestment of the government’s fully held equity in OGDCL, worked out at 215 million shares. To raise the proposed Rs6.9 billion, total number of applications in the minimum lot of 1,000 shares had to be 215,000. Since the government had committed to accord priority in allocation of shares to investors applying for minimum lot of 1,000 shares, there does not appear to be the need for balloting for all small shareholders were likely to be accommodated.

The interim figure of 94,493 applications suggests that the OGDC IPO has attracted the highest number of applications for any equity offering at the stock exchange. The previous best was 73,000 applications received in response to the recent IPO of Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT). Formal listing of OGDC next month would add around $3 billion to the $14 billion that the KSE currently holds in market capitalization.

The OGDC stock that was put up for sale at Rs32 a piece had already galvanized to Rs44 in provisional trading on Tuesday. That represented premium of Rs12,000 or 38 per cent on an investment of Rs32,000 to the applicant of a minimum lot of thousand shares. A large number of small investors who did not miss out on the opportunity, could perhaps consider the premium to be an Eid gift.